'Art's a service': Women's philanthropy and the role of the author in mid-Victorian England (Charles Dickens, Charlotte Yonge, Charlotte Tucker, Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

At the age of twenty-one, when Charlotte Yonge completed her first novel for publication, her father challenged her motives for publishing it: "I cannot forget...my father, before taking any steps about Abbey Church, gravely putting it before me that there were three reasons for which one might desire to publish---love of vanity, or of gain, or the wish to do good. I answered, with tears, that I really hoped I had written with the purpose of being useful to young girls like myself" ("Lifelong Friends" 183). Yonge's story was not unique. Even the young George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) began her literary career looking for a profession which would allow her "to work for poor stricken humanity and never think of self again" (Letters 261). Many Victorian novelists published in order to encourage sympathy for the less fortunate and to advocate social action. They attempted to expose the evils of poverty, portray an exemplary life, or explore the difficulties and eventual rewards of fulfilling one's social duties.; Given the Victorian concern for social stability and progress, these authors were certainly not alone in their emphasis on social responsibility. Perhaps the most quintessentially Victorian answer to many social problems was organized philanthropy, which involved nearly all ranks of society, from children who collected pennies to the Queen herself. Especially prominent was the work of middle-class female philanthropists, who had ample time, means, and zeal to devote to charitable causes. These philanthropists worried incessantly about how to aid the poor without creating pauperism, how to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving, and how to help the poor lead comfortable lives without encouraging either "levelling" or social climbing.; It is difficult to find a Victorian novel which does not address these philanthropic issues in some form. In fact, some authors integrated the issues of Victorian philanthropy into their own philosophies so completely that they defined their profession according to the terms involved in charity debates. In this project I will examine the work of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Tucker (A.L.O.E.), Charlotte Yonge, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning to explore how mid-Victorian authors shaped their discussions of women's charity to investigate and illuminate their own roles in society.